For those who read their papers, our wonderful Queen has, very sadly, been on the throne for 60 years. I've completely missed the celebrations on television along with the rest of my family for a variety of reasons, partly because I was asleep until about lunchtime. I'm really sick and tired of people saying how wonderful the Queen/Royal Family/Jubilee is and was, all the monarchists out in force. It is a result of what my Dad very accurately calls 'The Ultimate Con'. So I've decided to list a few arguments you may wish to note down, Aspie or otherwise

-The Royal Family is not involved in politicsTechnically, that's not true. For instance, there is the slight matter of the Civil List which no one picks up on, by which lots of people get honours for things that don't matter. Also, if anyone of you have listened to Prince Charles, he has some funny ideas that he wants to see in politics. And he's prepared to support any party that supports those ideas...

-The Royal Family represent the best of British DemocracyHow? They and the House of Lords are unelected. Surely they have no real place in a democracy that styles itself on being modern and looking to the future. The House of Lords should be elected by the people and the Royal Family...well

-The Queen does so much for the countrySupporting a couple of charities and the occasional Royal Visit obviously make a terrific impact in the lives of ordinary people across the country. And by country, I mean the whole UK, not just London.

-The Queen brings in touristsSo does the rest of London. Buckingham Palace is only one of many tourist attractions that happen to be there. And where do you think all the money for tourism goes? I haven't seen it...yet.

-If we had a Republic, we'd have to have President Cameron/Clegg/Milband and turn out like America or Saudi ArabiaDon't forget, Presidents have to be voted in first and we can actually chose who we can have as our figurehead. Also loads of countries today such as China, Japan, France, Germany and even America (though more in the 19th-20th centuries) have done fine without a monarchy of sorts.

-The Jubilee is a chance to celebrate in style and take pride in BritainYeah, great. Good on you. You can pick up the bill that comes with it. After that, we can happily pay our hard-earned taxes into supporting the Royal Family and their large staff again, just as before. It's only £200 million a year, after all.

Haven't used this blog in a while, but a long conversation with my Dad got me thinking so I might write it down here.

In times of war, two men emerge, the brave and the coward. Even though sometimes they are the same person, people (especially in Britain, I notice) glorify war and the brave who fought, and more likely then not died. They hold the hero up and judge their current standards by how he and others acted in times of war. Meanwhile the coward gets no mention, even though he came home alive. He may have tired to be a hero, but fell short or bottled out after seeing hundreds of people die, many of whom were his mates and yet he is instantly judged a coward,

Now I imagine you're sitting wherever you are, reading this blog/rant and wondering 'what the hell has this got to do with a mental health forum?' I'll explain

Even though we know differently, the world's media has a habit of dividing people into two categories, the normal and the abnormal. Normal people are people who have no physical or mental problems in their lives. Abnormal people are people who do.Normal people are judged to be people who have no 'embarrassing' defects about them, who aren't 'nutjobs' or 'lunatics.' Meanwhile people all over the world who have DID, Austism, ASPD, BPD, Bi-polar, BDD etc are seen as people who are at best, different and at worst, people who should be locked up. We are judged because we fall short of the standards that are put on us by society.

Now I can understand how horrible this is and I can imagine some of you are offended. But it is true to some extent. And that's what makes this place and others like it so important. Politicians, journalists and even ordinary people harp on about mental illness and its disadvantages. But if that's normal, then that's not my bag, I prefer to be different. After all, how many politicians would give up their time willingly as volunteers to help people with their problems? How many journalists come on to these sites to give impartial, helpful advice to someone in need and, in turn, learn something about themselves? How many 'normal' people would devote themselves to offer advice and support to others in difficult positions, sometimes on a daily basis?And how would someone with a mental illness who is, right now, feeling alone and afraid, feel if they came here and realise that they are others like them, that they are not different? The fact they feel that way in the first place

We can't all be normal, we can't all be brave all of the time. But who says that means we give up? We don't and we won't.What do you think?

'Anyone can face a crisis, it's day-to-day living that wear you out'-Anton Chekhov

Last edited by DJM19 on Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well, what to say? Still enjoying history and Drama, first play's just before Christmas vacation so loads of rushing around, being busy. I'm doing mentoring sessions for one hour to help me with any problems I have, usually related to Aspergers, stress or both.Also started my first real essay, I have done about three sentences! What a fantastic start, don't you agree? I've done okay with my first two assessments though which is alright. Maybe I should wait until we're given proper guidelines...

Sorry for all of those expecting wild partying and antics (unless you'd like comedy antics from home! ). Still, there is more to life than protests and drinking, I find.Hope you're all okay out there.

This blog may prove that university students have way too much time to think about things.

Looking back over my life and my brief time on psychforums, I've started to wonder about my own personailty. Having Aspergers shows why my personailty is the way it is, but I've been thinking: What would happen if I didn't have anymore? If I woke up one day to find it gone, how would I notice? Would my whole personailty changes in an instant?In short, where does AS end and my own personailty begins?

One obvious change would be me not taking things too literally, but people do that anyway a lot of the time. Also, I would lose interest in history since it's been a life-long obessesion as well as my various hobbies.Behaviourists and medical science theorise that AS can involve specific personailty traits such as alturism (althoguh, like most things, this is debateable). I've learnt to deal with most aspects of AS so, if it went, what would I do then?

Like I said, I have too much time to think about stuff. If anyone feels like this as well, let me know.

Well, first day of freshers is over for me. Been to the university and...It's great! I was met by student support who shown me round the places I will no doubt be most of the time. Introduced to some of the staff and some of the other first-year students. Everyone's really friendly and supportive (and a little abnormal) so I hope I'll fit right in. First few weeks might be a bit hectic, but everything seems to be falling into place. Once I've settled in and found my routine, I'll be fine.